War of Succession
"There is only one Kenpachi every era." "That is a rule, and also an unavoidable destiny." "Because when a strong person finds another strong one, they stop using the sword just for themselves." "Suddenly, their sword is used to either kill..." "...or raise the other strong person." Act 1 A storm had swept across the Rukongai and Soul Society, ruining what was otherwise a clear and beautiful day. The storm would feel... unnatural, as if it were conjured by someone. At the entrance to the 11th Division Barracks, a shadow stood amongst the rain and thunder, looking at the wet earth beneath them as if they were a lifeless puppet. They wore a wet and tattered set of robes, lined and adored with various ropes and chains, with several wooden doll heads and Buddha statues dangling from their various belts and straps. A white mask was wrapped around her face, one displaying the face of a demon. The eye sockets inside of the mask, previously black and lifeless, became alight with a yellow glow as she slowly tilted her head up to look at the entrance of the Barracks. She drew a katana from the sheathe on her hip, and began to clang it against a bell that she carried with her other hand. The ringing of this bell would be haunting, sinister even for those who could hear it. It was not a mere wake up call as one would expect, however. It was a challenge. "Hyahh!!" "Too slow!" The blunt clashing of wooden bokken could be heard faintly within the walls of the barracks. Inside one of the buildings, several officers of the 11th Division were huddled around in a circle as they observed two combatants wielding practice swords. One was just a seated officer, nobody of particular interest in the grand scheme of things. But his opponent could not be mistaken. That large broad build, the long spiky hair, and that trademark eyepatch surrounding his right eye; he was the Captain of this squad, its 11th Captain to be precise. . The from ; the 11th holder of that prestigious name, held only by the one that is sung as the strongest Shinigami in a given era. On a day like today, it was not uncommon for the Shinigami of this battle-hardened squadron to be indoors conducting sparring drills. The Captain of Squad 11 normally held such sessions outdoors but with the storm raging outside, it was mere preference to avoid being drenched in the rain. The seated officer tried his best, searching for any vulnerable opening in the Captain's conscious defenses to penetrate, yet with every attempt he made, each and every strike failed. Before long, Zaraki realized he had gleaned all the joy from this spar he could, and with a sudden trespass into his opponent's sphere of influence, he swung the bokken hard, crashing it into his opponent's chest and sending him flying right through one of the walls. With a tumble, the defeated officer landed onto the wet grounds of the barracks' yard, the rain falling upon his unconscious body. "C-Captain! The wall!" "Oh. Well damn." Zaraki proclaimed with an uninterested tone, raising the bokken over his shoulder. "Somebody go wake him up, and then some other body can come up here and take his place." he immediately called, ready to topple his next adversary. But before any of that, the figure of a dark figure near the front gates caught the eye of all the division members; none more so than Zaraki himself. "W-Who are you?! Don't you know where you are?!" one of the officers yelled out. From the stranger's garb, it was clear this being was no Shinigami. Or at least, not one aligned with the Gotei 13. A Ryoka, perhaps. All the same, the officers knew that much from a single look, and immediately called out the stranger. "This is the barracks of the strongest squad in the Seireitei! Zaraki, amidst all the shouting his officers were making, silently kept his one uncovered eye fixed upon the stranger's form. As if to gauge the figure. He soon took a couple steps forward, approaching the hole in the wall he made earlier, but before he could step outside, several squad members had already leapt from the barracks and drew their weapons. "Answer immediately!" "If you don't...!" "Then we'll attack!" Three squad members took center stage, their blades aimed at the stranger, awaiting a response from them. All the while, Zaraki simply remained stationary as he observed this situation. If this was someone his lower officers could defeat, then this being was clearly not worth a moment of his time. Even as the trio of warriors took up arms against the figure, they only continued to clang their sword against their bell. The sound was now becoming loud enough to where one would think that the entirety of Soul Society could hear it. Finally, after several seconds of this, the figure slowly but surely began to stop this constant banging, their eyes glued almost exclusively on Kenpachi Zaraki. The being then held up the bell, the motion being slow enough for one to think that it was too heavy an item for her, before throwing it with surprising force to her left, slamming into a wall. Her eyes still trained on Kenpachi, utterly ignoring the soldiers that bore their swords against her, she pointed her own sword at the Captain. It was a fairly long katana whose blade was almost completely straight, right up until it's tip, with a diamond shaped guard and a maroon-colored handle. "Kenpachi..." She said, her voice clearly feminine but also raspy, whisp-like, as if she were a walking ghost. It was a voice that the other soldiers would hear not just via their ears, but in their minds as well. "I've come.... for you." The chill of her voice sent a shock down the spines of every Shinigami present. All except for Zaraki himself, whose mild expression of boredom slowly curled into a wide grin of excitement. "You know... For a little stringbean, you're pretty strong!" he praised, beginning once more to walk toward the woman as she herself was walking toward him. From the nearby corner of the room, he grasped the hilt of his own Zanpakutō, before passing through the hole and finally stepping onto the outside grounds. "C-Captain, please!" "You need not worry about this trespasser!" "Quiet. All of you." Zaraki silenced them all with his remark. Maintaining his grin, he slashed at the air above him, before bringing the sword back to his side. An enormous burst of force absolute swept through the air above, momentarily causing all the rain to cease. In moments, the rain once more began falling, all the while the Kenpachi's eye was fixed on his challenger. "So who the hell are you anyways? Well, I guess it doesn't really matter... All that really matters... is if you're good enough to help me shake off my boredom!" he called out, raising his blade above his head before slashing downwards, sending a shockwave of force toward his challenger with rapid abandon. The woman's body seemed to tilt to her right side, while her head lazily tilted over to her left, again giving off the impression that she were some sort of puppet, or a doll, before her speed suddenly reached blinding levels. Moving as if she were an aspect of the rain itself, the woman's entire form blazed through the rain to her right side, leaving a trail of the disrupted rain and mud in her wake. Holding her sword with her right hand, her elongated left fingernails began to grind themselves against the flat end of her sword, creating a massive and visible slew of orange sparks before slashing her hand outwards in a visible display of killing intent. With a large upheaval of mud and water, she flew at the Kenpachi with speeds nigh incomprehensible to the untrained eye, her launch towards him creating an audible BOOM as she went, before slashing down upon the Captain with force great enough to tear any normal opponent in half. Her eyes, those glowing yellow orbs behind that demonic mask conveyed a look not of enjoyment, not of sadism, but of pure, unrelenting killing intent. Her antics to throw killing intent toward Zaraki were met with a stone wall. To the eleventh Kenpachi, who faced off against the overwhelming might of Hueco Mundo's , who stood his ground and defeated the strongest of the ; to such a man, who has faced the threshold of life and death so many times he would have lost count, the intent to kill was as natural as breathing. An intent was just that; intention. But Zaraki was a stone wall; only force could make him move. Nothing less. Meeting her gaze with a sickening grin, the Captain swung his blade in the opposite direction and met the woman's blade with a fierce clashing of metal. Sparks flew, a mighty shockwave erupted from the point of collision, and yet, Zaraki then weakened his grip. He pulled his sword back, intending to cause the woman attacker to fall forward with her own forward momentum, as the Kenpachi reached out hoping to crush her skull should his grip reach. On the chance his opponent managed to avoid the blow, Zaraki had already made a motion with his other hand to thrust his blade. He was prepared to step forward and lunge right into the heart of this stranger if she made any attempt to dodge his bare-handed attack. Of course, there was a chance she might try to meet his grip with her own attack, or even with the goal of blocking Zaraki's hand. But if she were to do so, she would find that the Kenpachi's instincts were razor-sharp, and as such, the moment he noticed any such effort to block his reaching hand, his blade would instantly change its forward motion and swing downwards at an angle to cut her down from the right shoulder diagonally across down to the left side of her mid-section. As such, whether she sought to dodge his attack or to block it, Zaraki would immediately have his next move already in motion; all for the sake of pressuring this new challenger.